I'll tell you my story, that still stresses me out, but makes me laugh my head off every time i tell it.
30th July 2008, United are champions of England and Europe. I'm about 20 years old. I knew a guy who ran the Lancashire FA venue in Leyland, Preston. They hosted Man United Reserves v Liverpool reserves. It was a cup final, and there were rumours that Fergie would be there.
I sat down, had my 3 course meal, sat opposite a few z list football people, Mark Halsey (ref) being one, a few others.
Low and behold, Fergie walked in, sat on the round table next to me. I put all my energy into looking at Fergie, my idol, hero, father figure of a man, sarcastically I went to my mate, look at that bald guy next to him with his back to us, I bet that's Bobby Charlton. He turns around, its Sir Bobby! I couldn't believe it.
I spent a good hour just listening in to Fergie, he knew everyone at the table, every person, he's asking how their family are, their husbands and wives by first name. Really pleasant, genuine guy.
We finished the meal, I thought "i'm never getting this opportunity ever again, ever".
My mates going "DONT, DONT, DONT FECKING DO IT"
I did it
I walked over, Fergie was mid-conversation.
Bobby was smiling at me as I nervously ambled over.
I said "such a pleasure to meet you Sir Bobby, bla bla bla, can you sign my match programme?".
He said sure, you got a pen?
"No, sorry, I don't"
He said "no problem", reached into his pocket, pulls out a pen, signs it
He looked at me as if to say, "you want to go speak to Sir Alex don't you".
So I did, he was mid convo, my adrenaline and nerves produced a gentle whack into his back, and i said "excuse me Sir Alex".
He spun round super quick, as if I was telling him his car had been towed
"Hi son", he said
"I'm such a huge fan, you've been a legend at the club I love for my entire lifetime, bla bla bla, can you sign my match programme?"
"sure, you got a pen?"
I still didn't have a pen, i spun round, Bobby, had the pen ready, i snatched it out of his hand, "cheers Bobby!"
Had I just committed theft from one Knight of the Realm, and assaulted another?
Fergie signed it, I asked him about Ronaldo (rumours he was leaving), he said something like "leave that to me son, no doubt about that"
I walked off, i glanced at my mate, he's hiding behind his muffin, purple in the face.
Absolute scenes. It doesn't end there.
We said "right, nearly kick off, lets go find a spot outside instead of watching from behind glass"
We walked through a door, through another door, down a corridor, down some steps.
We open the door, we're only in the fecking tunnel and United/Liverpool are in their full kits, waiting to go out
Ole was the manager! He looked me right in the eye
Luckily I was in a suit, as it was a formal dinner
I just pretended I belonged there.
I stood behind both teams, clapped them as they walked out, fans (only a few hundred, but still...) started taking photos of me and my mate as we walked out with them, both pretending to be part of the staff, waving at them, no idea where to walk to, we stood next to the dugout the whole 45 mins.
Ole kept turning around to me, for no reason, moaning his winger can't stay on side when diagonal balls were being played over to him. I'm just stood there, baffled by the whole evening, nodding along, going "yeah, yeah Ole, stay on side innit"
Absolutely RIDICULOUS
I've got the autographed programme on my wall to this day.
I hope you enjoyed reading that, its all 100% true. It still baffles me it happened. Born in 1987, to meet Fergie, the man who has dominated english football my whole life, at my club, at the precise moment we were champions of Europe. Football, bloody hell.
